Pax of Nagoa, SBT draw 1-1

Pax of Nagoa, Goa, and State Bank of Travancore, Thiruvananthapuram, were involved in a 1-1 draw in their second round match in the Second Division National Football League (final phase) in Pondicherry on Thursday evening.

Following the draw, Pax have four points after two matches, while SBT, who had lost to BMFC in their first match, got their first point.

Pax shot into the lead in the 30th minute when striker Sebesto Endro made no mistake in finding the target. Striker Amachi collected the ball, ran down the right flank and gave a cross to an unmarked Endro, who had positioned himself in front of the goal.

Inspired by the success, Pax raided their rival citadel time and again and the SBT defence was under tremendous pressure. However, the Pax strikers failed to convert the chances that came in their way.

SBT also missed several chances. One of them was in the 18th minute, when an Asheef Saheer shot hit the right post and bounced back to play, but Pax keeper Purushothaman collected the ball before any SBT player could connect the rebounder.

In the erarly stages of the second session, SBT made some useful forays into the rival citadel. However, their strikers fell prey to the off-side trap laid by Pax time and again.

SBT found the equaliser in the 21st minute into the second session when Asheef Saheer, collecting a pass from Abdul Noushad, tapped the ball in.

After the teams levelled their score, there were moves and counter moves by both.

Indian Bank, Chennai, will meet Indian National Football Club, Delhi, while Air India, Mumbai, clash with Bengal Mumbai Football Club, in the third round matches, on Friday.

Second Division National Football League 2001-2002 - the complete coverage